work to test a hypothesis using current systems; Dr Kodagoda says the VALCRI system is designed to help analysts develop and test a hypothesis around a crime more rapidly. “If we can make it easier to test a hypothesis, that means there is a way to check on the possible explanations behind a crime and test alternative ideas before the police commit to a specific explanation, when they need a high degree of certainty,” she explains.
Encouraging imagination This encourages analysts to consider a wider range of perspectives during an investigation, which is a major driver behind the work of the project. Many historical failures in crime investigation and detection have later been attributed to a lack of imagination in analysis, an inability to use the available intelligence effectively, a shortcoming that the VALCRI system could help to address. “The problem in intelligence-led policing is not so much the availability of data – the problem is more about trying to figure out which of the dots are useful and relevant,” says Professor William Wong, the coordinator of the project. By helping analysts draw links with historical incidents, and enabling them to drill down to gain more detailed information on specific crimes,
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the VALCRI system encourages analysts to be imaginative and think of possible outcomes that might otherwise have been overlooked. “We aim to give the police a tool that could potentially make their lives easier and help them do their job more efficiently,” says Dr Rooney. This must not come at the cost of compromising data security however, while there are also ethical concerns around the use of this kind of information.
system is designed to support analysts in their decision-making, not to make decisions on their behalf,” stresses Dr Rooney. The longer-term goal for the project is to apply the system in policing. The project consortium includes three end-user partners – West Midlands Police Force in the UK, and both the federal and local police forces in the Belgian city of Antwerp – each of which face different
Currently analysts use lots of different systems to
do different tasks. The idea of integrating this together is that
you can see the data in many different forms, all within the same interface
Dr Rooney and his colleagues in the project are well aware of these kinds of issues. “We have a body of researchers within the project addressing SEPL (Security, Ethical, Privacy and Legal) issues, and their focus is on maintaining transparency in the system and mitigating the risks around misuse of data,” he explains. There is also a team within the project working on biases, aiming to mitigate the risk of any biases emerging and supporting objective policing. “The
challenges, and therefore require different types of data. “The strategic team in the West Midlands are primarily interested in volume data – so things like general increases or reductions in crime and monitoring any emerging trends. For example, is there a significant increase in crime in September because students are arriving in a city? How can we mitigate that? Whereas the federal police in Belgium are a bit more focused on the operational side of things, so data like
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